In the field of landscape lighting, most lighting fixtures are located at or near ground level employing attractive fixtures which blend into the landscape. Some fixtures are designed to light walkways. Some are designed to provide accent lighting for the ground level plants and some are designed to project light toward buildings or taller landscaping such as bushes and trees.
One of the more difficult applications for garden lighting is to provide an unobtrusive lighting fixture which directs light downward toward a garden scene. The use of a post or pole to support such a fixture often detracts from the beauty of the landscape scene for which the lighting was intended to enhance.
A more desirable approach, in such a case, is to use an existing tree as the support for the lighting fixture. Mounting of the fixture on a tree by an inserting a fastener into the tree may not be acceptable to horticulturists and landscape architects. A more desirable approach is to apply a band around the tree trunk or a branch with a bracket and secure the lighting fixture to the bracket.
One of the problems in attaching anything to a growing tree is accommodating the natural growth in diameter of the tree. One approach is to employ a padded strap in which the padding resiliency provides the only accommodation for tree growth. This may only allow one season's growth until the padding is compressed and the strapping begins to scar the tree. A second approach is the use of a manually adjustable strap which may or may not be padded. The problem with both of these approaches is that the expansion capability of resilient padding is limited and the manually adjusted band is soon forgotten and usually adjustment is attempted only after someone notices the band cutting into the tree trunk or branch and a scar already formed.
In some cases the band or strap has become embedded in the tree growth and is not even removable. Nearly everyone has encountered fencing wires or the like installed at an earlier date and the wire totally enclosed in the growth of a tree.